Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Ahern's inventive fourth novel lays open the life of Sandy Shortt, who has been obsessed with missing things and people since her childhood, when her nemesis, the blond and perfect Jenny-May Butler, disappeared. At 34, Sandy tracks missing people for a living. When she's hired by Jack Ruttle to find his younger brother, who disappeared after a night out with his friends, Sandy travels to Limerick to meet her new client. The two cross paths at a gas station, but before their arranged meeting, Sandy goes on a jog and finds herself far, far off the beaten path in a land filled with people and things who went missing from all over the world. Unable to find their way home, the missing have formed their own community, which they show to the thunderstruck Sandy. And Sandy, who has always remained remote from those she should be closest to, discovers that finding the missing people and things she's spent her life looking for doesn't make up for all the things she's been missing out on in her own life. A positively magical novel, Ahern's latest sparkles with wit, compelling characters, and a truly clever premise.--Huntley, Kristine Copyright 2007 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Ahern tells the fantastical story of Sandy Shortt, a smalltown Irish girl who, at 10 years old, becomes obsessed with finding lost things after a neighborhood girl disappears. Sandy's parents fret for years about her fixation, eventually finding her help in the form of hunky high school psychologist Gregory Burton. He's not much older than Sandy, and soon enough they're both smitten, though neither moves to pursue a romantic relationship until later, after Sandy graduates and moves to Dublin, where she tracks missing persons for a living. Gregory follows and they start and stall through an awkward courtship that's cut short when Sandy, while on a jog, gets lost and winds up in a strange parallel universe, home to the people and things that have gone missing from the regular world. What happens to Sandy there, and to those she left behind, will determine not only her future but Gregory's as well. Ahern jumps around in time and space, which adds as much confusion as suspense, but the underlying message about cherishing what you have comes through loudly by the end. That a film adaptation of Ahern's P.S., I Love You is scheduled for release in late December can't hurt sales potential. (Jan.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Ahern's (If You Could See Me Now) latest novel veers away from traditional chick lit, blending mystery and fantasy. Sandy Shortt, a six-foot, obsessive-compulsive detective and proprietress of a missing-persons agency, has spent her entire life looking for things and people-from that sock lost in the dryer to her childhood rival, Jenny-May Butler. When Sandy gets lost in the woods one day, she discovers a mysterious and magical land where she finally finds all her missing socks, passports, Jenny-May, and even herself. Secondary plotlines include Sandy's on-again, off-again love affair with her former therapist and an intertwining mystery involving one of the missing people. Ahern's novel PS, I Love You is now a major motion picture starring Hilary Swank and Gerard Butler, and the television series she cocreated with Donald Todd, Samantha Who?, recently made its debut on ABC, so there's bound to be interest. With no mention of shoes or fashion and very little about Sandy's romantic relationship, this book may disappoint readers expecting typical chick-lit fare, but Ahern fans will find it a fascinating and pleasant read. Recommended for popular fiction collections.-Anika Fajardo, Coll. of St. Catherine Lib., St. Paul, MN (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Ahern (If You Could See Me Now, 2006, etc.) approaches the less-than-playful subject of missing persons with her typical whimsy. Sandy Shortt of County Leitrim, Ireland, has been obsessed with lost objects ever since her playmate and rival Jenny-May Butler disappeared when they were ten. Concerned about her obsessive-compulsive tendencies, Sandy's parents sent her at 14 to a therapist, Gregory Burton, whom she saw until she graduated high school at 18, when he gave her a lingering farewell kiss. Now Sandy, who is 34 and whose 6'1" frame cutely belies her name, runs an agency to find missing people. She also has carried on a romantic relationship with Gregory since she was 21, but she has been unwilling to commit--the apparently unintentional creep factor of this relationship is emblematic of the novel. One early morning, while out jogging, Sandy takes a strange path and ends up in the world of lost things and people. It turns out to be a pretty nice world, actually, with good food. Sandy soon meets most of the persons she's been looking for over the years, including Jenny-May. While they have made complete lives for themselves, the lost are happy to have Sandy fill them in on the families left behind. Meanwhile, back in Ireland, the last person Sandy noticed before disappearing was a familiar-looking man at a gas station. Coincidentally he is Jack Ruttle, the man she was scheduled to meet to discuss his missing brother. When she doesn't appear for their meeting, Jack, desperate to find his brother, goes looking for Sandy and stumbles upon the truth about his sibling. Sandy returns, cured of her obsession and ready to embrace the present. For all her wit and cleverness, Ahern's romanticizing of missing children, not to mention the disappeared, borders on offensive. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
